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Extreme Programming for Web Projects
Can good ideas dominate the buzzwords? This risk -- the authors contend -- is the reason many web development projects fail in one way or another. The client's objective is to obtain maximum value, the developer's to incur the least cost possible without getting sued.
The authors show a way in which this risk can be shared fairly between the client and the developer, by using XP and iterative development cycles, alongside a release plan, to acknowledge the risks inherent in a development project, and manage them rather than try to pretend they don't exist. The project team -- client and developer -- work together to create an iteration plan, and use this shared understanding of the requirements to guide the project.
The book is structured into 4 parts: Part 1: XP and Web Projects explores the problems associated with web development projects. Part 2, Working on Web XP Projects explores some of the practicalities of the authors' process - iterative development cycles, the development environment, team roles, and the graphic design process. Part 3: XML and Web XP is a bit of an oddity in a methodology book -- it focuses on some technology-specific issues which the authors claim can be addressed by using XML. Part 4: Web XP Best Practices discusses planning, design, coding and testing issues.
What's good about this book? Well, there are some insights into the relationship between suppliers and customers in development projects. (I don't believe, though, that they're as specific to web projects as the authors seem to claim).
What's bad about this book? It seems to be a sales brochure for the author's web shop -- "we do things thusly, and it yields fantastic results every time." The text is full of fairly broad, even sweeping statements ("Many programmers put SQL code right on a web page" -- when was the last time you saw a select statement on a web page ?).
The authors do not really seem to be able to identify those aspects which make web development projects different from other types of development. Some of the team roles they recommend are bizarre -- the authors identify the role of "Strategist" who seems to help those poor idiot customers to understand their own business. This may be necessary on some projects, but I find this attitude very condescending -- the days when web development was portrayed as a cross between alchemy and spiritual enlightenment are long gone. Many of the sections are very superficial, but the book is littered with footnotes saying "Chapter X discusses this in detail."
In short, I'd say this book is too lightweight for people who understand XP already and want to learn how it applies to web projects, and novices are likely to get hung up on the largely redundant side tracks (CVS versus MS Sourcesafe -- Huh? How did that get past the editors?) to be able to see the extreme wood for the trees.
You can purchase Extreme Programming for Web Projectsfrom bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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The ONLY way, truth and life!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2756345.stm
A crucial report into the collapse of disgraced energy giant Enron has discovered the firm's executives bribed tax officials.
The energy giant - once the US' fifth largest firm - paid no income tax between 1996 and 1999 according to the investigation by the Senate Finance Committee.
The outraged committee's chaiman, Charles Grassley, described a week-long programme - described as a "conference" - of wining and dining, tennis, fishing and golf as part of Enron's strategy to get its own way.
Mr Grassley also said the report called into serious doubt the ethics of tax advisers and the "desperate" bankers, accountants and lawyers who helped Enron.
The investigation provides the first complete story of Enron's efforts to manipulate its taxes and accounting.
The findings of the investigation, which have been kept tightly under wraps until now, have been described by senators as "eye-popping", "disturbing", "finger-licking" and "barn-burning".
Enron's bankruptcy was the first in a wave of scandals that swept across corporate America, transforming attitudes towards companies.
Enron's failure destroyed the retirement savings of thousands of employees and hurt individual investors and pension funds across the world.
Experts say it is likely to lead to the reform of corporate tax law in the US, an area not previously tackled in the aftermath of the Enron scandal.
The collapse of Enron was particularly shocking because its accounts made the firm appear to be healthy and prosperous.
And lawmakers have been scrambling to ensure that laws are changed to prevent the deception recurring.
The Finance Committee's ranking Democrat Max Baucus said Enron "overwhelmed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with the complexity" of its transactions.
"The IRS really couldn't figure it out even if it tried," Mr Baucus said, saying that complexity had been Enron's ally.
The BBC's New York business correspondent, Stephen Evans, says the big question is who the senators will implicate in the deception.
Kenneth Lay, Enron's former chairman and chief executive, maintained his silence when he appeared before the committee. He has not yet been charged.
Andrew Fastow, the former chief financial officer, has pleaded innocent to 78 counts of fraud, money-laundering, conspiracy and other charges.
But other company employees have alleged that the top executives knew about the damaging schemes being hatched in the finance department.
Evidence from the report today may also give federal prosecutors new leads in their battle to weave together a case against Enron.
It is now 18 months since the accounting black hole was first revealed, but the complexity of the case has slowed legal proceedings.
1. Download PHP
p 3 )
2. Download PHPed http://www.nusphere.com/ and a good debugger.
3. Learn Objects ( http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/mark20000727.ph
4. Learn to post data between pages, and some security.
5. Now you are ready for building small webpages.
6. Learn MySQL or Oracle/MS SQL.. Whatever..
7. Make some larger webpages.. Make them al similar with different GUI's and offer them all to larger companies.
Now you're ready to build a real system like I do. Information systems with many clients, all registering data in your nice system. Be sure to always be personal owner of the things you do and your future should be okay.